Usually, such a computer system as a minicomputer requiring high computational and fault-tolerant performances consists of a plurality of different nodes, wherein the nodes are the smallest units of hard partition, each node can independently form a partition or can interconnect with other nodes to form a partition, and on each partition can run an independent operating system. Specifically, several independent nodes in the computer system form an integral whole, namely a partition system, via the CPU interconnection technology. Under this integral whole can run an operating system that may access to any valid device on the nodes pertaining to the partition.
Each node in a partition system not only requires clocks, but also requires clocks of the same source. This is so because clocks are of great importance in digital circuits—once there is no clock, it would be entirely impossible for digital logic to properly operate. Moreover, if various nodes in a partition system did not use clocks of the same source, it would also be impossible for the entire partition to normally operate.
In prior-art technology, the partition system makes use of a single clock synchronization scheme to achieve clock synchronization in the partition system. That is to say, there is only one clock in a partition system to serve as the clock source for various nodes within the partition system, and the clock is either placed on a certain node of the partition system, or separated from the various nodes so as to be separately arranged.
The prior-art technology is defective in the fact that since there is only one clock serving as a clock source in a partition system, when this clock malfunctions, there would be no clock source available in that partition system, and it would be impossible to achieve clock synchronization of the various nodes within the partition system.